Honor The Brave
by Got2Points
Summary: He died, woke up and landed in this world. Your typical boy-becomes-shipgirl-boy-thing story... or something like that.
1. Sleep and awakening

The world starts to fade around him, every breath he takes gets weaker and the area around the belly starts to cool down again. "What happened?", are the only words crossing his mind. No more pain, no more energy is left in him to move or just to turn his head to take a look around. Nothing. Nothing he sees tells him where he is or why he is here just all he knows is that he lies very uncomfortable on solid ground as the world he knows starts to ends for him.

His eyes slowly close leaving him and his question unanswered in the dark. And then, silence. There is nothing at all. No light, no sound or anything for a sign of something, not even darkness. It's just nothing. Him in the nothingness. For eternity?

"But this can't be the end! There were so many things I still wanted to do. Like travelling around the world for once. Is there still hope for me?" He thinks back of what he still can remember but there is nothing much. Something has happened that made him forget. It has to be something so terrible that he doesn't want to remember. But what could it be? He thinks back at home, how he used to be there, cooking or playing games. He thinks back at his friends, who he had fun with the most, always laughing together. And he thinks back at the sea... the sea. The salty air, the cool breeze and the water... It was always moving. The waves always embraced his hand when he put it into the sea. Slowly pulling and pushing. Ever and ever again without stopping. Like this... "Huh?"

* * *

**Yo Got2Points here and first of all I DO NOT OWN Kantai collection or any of it's characters I probably just have the most fun in my life writing this... for about the next few months i guess. But anyway just enjoy it^^**

* * *

His eyes opened without him knowing and he's greeted by the bright sun in the middle of an unknown sea. More and more questions enter his mind like where he is or how much time has passed since everything turned dark. "I was sure I died. Maybe this is the afterlife.", would be his best guess.

He tries to turn and twist his body and swim upwards to take a better look around but he's meet with a surprisingly huge force pulling him back down but not under the surface. Every move presses against something like solid rock. But this "rock" is just water that is moving up and down like a living being. Like a sleeping creature, so he tries a different approach. He stands up.

No need to learn the logic about it but he succeeds and a hand to his belly reveals... nothing. Upright standing with clothing soaked in water he notices weird metal devices attached on his body. Nothing he has ever seen in his life. Weird looking boots plus gun like objects on his left underarm facing forward and backwards and beside many small other things all over his body there is a mace hanging down one side of the hip. That mace he knows too well. But it should be home, lock away behind glass.

"What is this? Should I touch it?" His hand moves softly over the metal on his arm. Solid, cold and heavy but he feels no exhaustion wearing these. It just like a part of him. Like a larger arm. He knocks twice on it and a typical metal calls back. "Hm, nothi-" A loud BANG cuts him off and a large force runs all the way trough his arm into his body. "I-I-It fired!" And another explosion follows and somewhat in the distance a water soil is to be seen.

"That smell." He takes the deep breath. "Familiar but somehow not. I better not touch it anymore. But has anyone heard that?"

"I did." In an instant he turns around to face that voice. "And I am as surprised as you are fuh heh heh hih." A black woman with pale white skin in an awfully blue shine appeared right behind him from nowhere just about one meter away, staring right into his eyes. Hers are hidden behind a mask with large horns and an monstrous jaw with teeth and guns beside her. Her voice is followed by a strange echo like by a ghost and the joy it expresses is pierced by a hidden source of pain. He doesn't know if she is actually in pain or not. It's just a feeling. "Oh my, I never thought there were male ones. It is kind of interesting and you're kind of cute and I would love to spend more time with you but would you but please do me a favor and die for me? Please?"

That giant mouth slowly opens and the woman's grin becomes crazy like wider. A similar scene flies trough his head. He was in this position once, not to be able to do something. Just like a sheep waiting for the slaughter. But not this time. And as the mouth cries out and fires, he quickly takes a step closer and moves underneath it. The guns echo behind him as he pushes that thing up and gets ready for a punch.

The arm and fist under a heavy tension he gets into the punch in the guts. The fist carves deeply into her as it hits and sends her flying back. Between the coughs she catches her breathing again releases another salvo on her knees that directly hit him. "You little-! I will enjoy destroying you!" The pain he experiences is real so is the blood that runs down his arm. But there's no time to keep thinking about it yet. He jumps out of the smoke created by the several hits and runs towards her. "Too slow!" She cries moves backwards in a surprising fast speed without moving her legs what made his next punch miss and hit the air.

"What?! How can she move like this?"

Another round hits him off balanced from the swing and forces him down onto the knees. This time he coughts blood. The smell of burnings and steel fills his nose and his body is shaking under it's own weight now. One hit after another. He gets repeatedly shot from close by while that crazy women laughs non stop. "Oh please. Are you already defeated? I just started to have fun. Come one and struggle a bit!"

"She's just toying me but at this rate I'll be done soon enough." Just a few seconds, he has, to think of something before her next round is ready. She's still close by but is moving in an insane speed around him. Her laughter grows even loader and louder and even more crazier than before, and he's sick of it.

With one hand he grabs his mace by the short chain that is attached to it, the one used to hang it down the belt, and whirl it around like a morning star and throws it with all his strength at her. The laughter instantly stop as she notices that heavy piece of metal flying at her face. And with loud bump it smacks her down to the ground. Her bloody mask broke in two with one part falling together with the mace into the sea. Just in time he reaches out for it before it completely vanishes between the waves and he gets into another strike hitting her at the chest.

The mouth with it's own mind opens again to protect his women. "Too slow!" He shouts this time and hits his metal device on the arm with the mace and fires his shells at her for the first time, hitting her on the ground and covering her in a black smoke. Even in that smoke he can feel her dark presence trying to run away. "You won't get away!" One hand enters the smoke first grabs the first thing behind it with the mace lifted high up into the air, ready for the execution. "Die!"

"Wait!", another voice shouted and he stops, and as the smoke clears away it reveals another face. The wind created by the enorm force behind the swing makes her hair move slightly out of the face. Just a few centimetres more and that weapon would have cracked her skull open. He can feel another presence in the water moving away and vanishing in the depths. That must be that crazy bitch he just fought but who is that? She just a child.

"And who are you?", he asks emotionless with his guard up. When she's also that crazy and wants to attack him he has to be ready to fight once more.

With hands guarding her head and tears in her eyes she forcefully answers back very scared: "I-I-I'm Kisaragi. Please don't hit me." His grip loose and she looks up to him. "You're hurt! You just fought a princess head on."

"Princess?", not how he imagine a princess.

"Let me take you to our base. You seem to be one of us." She completely ignored his question.

"Base? One of you? Are there more?" She nods. "Fine. But I'll have an eye on you!"


	2. New reality

**Well I'm laaattte and this chapter has just 2500 words instead of the 4000 I wanted to make. But it's not like I was to bad for 4000... or maybe I was but the problem was, beside that I have so much to do with school and so and I also forgot that I'm addicted to games, that I've made some major changes and forgot to save (oh man I suck) and the chapter ended up with 6000 words and I just quickly decided to make 2 or 3 different chapters out of it and maaan... the story will turn in a very different diraction. But you'll see soon enough haha. Also there may be some words missing or some double when I get a black out while writing (except for that "far far" part, that was intended). So please tell me where I made mistakes for me to fix them. So thank you and enjoy this one.**

* * *

She was quite surprised. Well, not just because of the fact that he's a male, since ships are all considered female only, but also because he didn't know the basics of moving on water or shooting these guns. There are no visible triggers or levers or similar, which would make things easier. Much easier. Instead these are practically a part of him. That's why moving in all this heavy gear doesn't exhaust him that much. He could wear them all day and be exhausted like a normal person after a normal day of standing around.

At least a lack of combat experience is not a problem... for now. The aquired knowledge he already has seem to be quite useful if you look how badly he has beaten up that crazy one. But that's by far not enough. He has taken a similar amount of damage just by getting shot at. It's still a wonder for him to survive that in the first place.

This is the best opportunity to learn the basics of moving but just enough to get to the mainland. That's what Kisaragi said. If one doesn't have the required skills when he depends on it, it's the best time to learn them. If that's true is questionable. But as a teacher that girl is a surprisingly good one despite her childish appearance. He can't say that to everyone. The schools he went on had sometimes pretty shitty teachers. Ones that are complete incompetent, some were unnecessarily strict and very few were just assholes. But it's not like there were only bad teachers.

But Kisaragi was on a whole another level. It almost felt like that she got to know him better than himself just by looking at him at the beginning and knows the best way to teach. She seem to do that a lot. And handling the machines without triggering something was the most difficult part, he got it after a while with a lot of her help and only needs to adapt to that concept of controlling most things with his mind, what can take quite a time. Well actually adapting is the only difficulty from learning something. Adapting and saving.

Now, both of them are heading west, to the base that has been mentioned once when they met eariler. They were travelling of hours now which doesn't feel that long for him since he's still experimenting with his stance on water while moving. His feet work well enough but what to do with the hands? It also totally feels different from walking on land. It's wet, slides, the sea beneath his feet is constantly move up and down and his feet has almost no grip on water what gives him a lot difficulties to keep standing and not smacking his face on the surface. It feels just like sliding on living ice that's about to shake you off.

Both aren't travelling that fast since he can't really catch up on her right now. If she wants to she could easily shake him off and leave him back, alone on the ocean. At least he tries as fast as he can what makes him really look like an amateur. What he actually is.

Her movements on the other hand are smooth and fluent with her slightly tilting left and back to right making small, curvy trails in the water like a snake. Her arms and body gives her a perfect balance and her legs always moves differently with every wave coming. She is alway in motions and never stops to be. It almost looks like she's dancing on water and between the calming sea calling he can hear her voice humming a stage but lovely melody.

This journey goes on like that without a word falling. He doesn't dare to disturb her moment of quiet. She looks so peaceful and happy in this state, like every pain and stress just went far far away. He can't do otherwise that to smile at this sign of hers and he feels something that hasn't felt a long time ago. A familiar feeling he knows very well but can't remember when he felt it the last time anymore. True freedom is that feeling. Before everything went black for him there was only the opposite, something dark and painful, but there also was the same feeling somewhere near by. Like a weak light in the dark that you won't even notice until you look long enough in the right direction.

Eventually he speaks to her slightly careful in one of the smaller breaks of humming. "So, why are you out here on your own."

This just catch her by surprise. "Huh? Erm, well..." She looks back and goes with her hand through her long, red hair.

"I mean you saw what happened. So isn't it dangerous to be out here alone?"

"Um, yep, it is." She joyfully smiles back but that isn't really something one can smile about. "But I'm far stronger than I look. So it won't be much of a problem. Beside - I wasn't alone. Well not at first."

He stares at her with a stare that makes his entitled questions clear. She may be a good teacher but something inside tells him that she may also be some short of idiot. But the good kind of idiots. At least sometimes.

"You see I got lost somehow hehe." She scratches her head and keeps smiling. His thought just officially proofed to be true. "But do not worry! I know what I'm doing!" She comforts him. "I've been in similar stations often when one of my sisters got lost again."

He keeps staring the same way while she's about to play around with her hair, wrapping the tip around one finger. "So there are more of you! Did you search one of your sisters again and got lost in the process?"

"Well I don't know if I'm allowed tell you but it's something similar. But yes, I've been searching something... eh someone but instead I found you." As she turns away again. Her sight moves all the way through the horizon and fixes at something not far in the distance. "You see that?" She points out at it.

He looks very carefully at the shown direction just to spot something he hasn't noticed before. "A fisher boat? Maybe?" He adds from behind. His untrained eyes can't see a thing from that far. For him it's just a white something on the ocean and a fisher boat is the most likely conclusion.

"If that's right they're pretty far out here. Let's take a closer look." There she goes ahead and just a few swift seconds later she's out of reach with him struggling after her. It's just a small cruiser for about four people to fit on, the ones that are usually used to rescue people on sea or near the coast. It may even have a smaller daughter boat on it.

For him it's just a boat swimming on the sea. Nothing special. So he doesn't quite understand why Kisaragi's facial expressions just changed so worried and sad when she rushes towards them and she's immediately greet by an elderly skinny man on the boat.

At this distance and with the engine roaring he understands absolutely nothing at all. The man on board is leaning out to her and speaks with a joyful smile just like every elder who likes to talk to people they just came across. He looks pretty old probably around his sixties or seventies and has no beard. His tired eyes are dark and easy to spot from this distance which repeatedly blink a lot. He must be really tired of something.

As the he slowly approaches the man notices his presence and starts to scan him from top to bottom like a security guard at the airport. "Oh I never thought there are male ones too. I only heard of female ships. E-Even this boat is female." He points at his boat and laughs out loudly. "Oh you look like you took quite a beating. What happened to you- NO! Wait! Don't tell me! I don't want to know! But wait a second. Maybe I have some bandages left." He steps into the boat's cabin with some eyes following from his small crew of younger men. They don't really seem to care what happens right now. Just a brief look, they give, and that's it.

As he get behind Kisaragi again he leans closer to whisper into her ear from behind. "What is that man talking about? I mean that ship part."

She just turns her head to whisper back with a big question mark above her head. "Huh? You don't know what we are?"

Shaking his head is the only respond he's able to over.

Meanwhile the old man's voice echos out from not deep inside the boat and various sounds, like falling objects, following behind which ends with him stepping out again. "Just a poor amount but you'll need these bandages more than us. Just take them."

"Thank you." He simply replies while taking the bandages.

"No need to thank me." The old man also replies simply back like something naturally. "Alright, if you don't mind leaving us? You scare the fishes away." And with that he turns away and vanishes back into the boat, only leaving back a speechless destroyer and a wounded guy with some bandages back.

Kisaragi looks for a few second at the back of the man when he takes his steps into the cabin. These eyes of hers are still filled with worry.

"Is everything alright?" He asks to be certain of her mental state.

"Eh?!" She slightly jumps up. "Y-Yeah everything's fine. It just makes me sad to see that."

"Sad? Why that? I mean they're just fishing."

"That's the point. They fish because they're desperate. You see, the entire ocean is a constant battlefield between us and the abyssal, and towns and villages at the coast are complete defenceless from attacks and the most supplies are going into the big cities with a big port and a naval base such as ours. These people are going so far out here because they can't find food at the coast anymore. If they don't go out they may starve."

"... oh em...I didn't know it was that terrible. Do you think we can help them somehow."

A firy spark just lit up in her eyes and her hands clench together into fits. He also catches a glimpse of her teeth as she bites her lips for a second when she takes a deep breath and half loudly whispers in a hurtful voice in anger. "We can help them when we wipe out the abyssals!" She was quite young. Hearing this from her just took him by surprise. She just looks 12-14 years old and the thought of sending children into a war makes him sick.

She quickly pulls herself together and returns to her usual self he learned to know firstly. "I-I'm sorry for what I just said. Please forget it. A-Anyways, let me treat your wounds with these bandages. Come here and hold still please."

She softly puts them around some still bleeding parts of his body. Many small wounds has already stopped bleeding but still hurt a lot and the clothing soaked in salty water doesn't make things better. It feels truly great to have something soft and dry wrapped tightly around parts of his body which were cold and wet since he woke up.

"And... finish! It is not much but I think this will do until we reach the mainland." Kisaragi says after she's done with treating him. He looks at his brand new still white bandages. They are just quickly wrapped around his limps and not even underneath his clothing. As he strives carefully over them with his fingers he notices the dark areas underneath where it hurts the most showing him that he is absolutely not immortal... but also not dead at all and pretty much alive.

"Erm yeah." He scratches the back of his head. "I guess a thank you is all I can say again."

Helping others makes her look brighter. She seems to enjoy it, that's why she was down when she saw the men that couldn't be helped. "Nothing to thank me. I just simply- Eh?!" Something has make her stop.

"Hm? Hello? Kisa-" He starts but also stops when he witnesses her eyes widing in terror as they look past him.

From the bottom of her lungs she shouts right into his face "Whatch out!", and swings with her full body weight at him, pulling them both down onto the surface. At the moment both of them splash onto the water and before he can ask why she's doing this, an ear bursting explosion fills the area together with flames lighting up brighter than he sun. They remain there for some moments as more explosions follow in the surrounding water completely cover them in the salty liquid. Even the waves start to call out in pain and turn and twist. That's it for the dry, comfy and white bandages.

In this moment of defencelessness he can hear an almost demonic laughter from behind and this echoing voice can't be mistaken. He has heard it before. "Hey, are you alright?", he hears Kisaragi's voice between the falling shells and their impact on the water. "Come on! We need to save the fishermen... no... it can't be..."

When he finally get himself together to move from the sudden attack, his eyes fall on Kisaragi how she's kneeling on the water. Her eyes and body completely frozen in shock facing a burning sea in front of her where a whole boat with fishermen on board was just floating a few seconds ago. Now at it's place the waves are pulling on it's flaming remains down to the abyss. Nothing will remain, not even the corpses of the men.

A quick look behind reveals his thoughts. That crazy bitch, the first entity he got to meet after he woke up, is rushing towards them but still far in the distance. They still have time to move but it won't take long for her to catch up on them.

She looks beaten and even crazier than before, her eyes scream death and where the mask used to be is just hair. Wet hair from her head, almost covering her complete face and beneath the shadows between, he sees her eyes glow in rage. She's also followed by two more creatures with similar pale skin and deadly weapons and behind them is what's look like living, black wall from the depths of the sea. A huge wave of black monsters is rolling at their direction and both the horizon and the sky is filled with them.

"Heeey asshole~ It's payback time!" She shouts in the distance clearly at him. "Time for round two fuh heh heh HEH HEH! AND THIS TIME I BROUGHT SOME FRIENDS FUH HEH HEH HIIIHH!" She has completely lost it.

In the meantime Kisaragi is just sitting there staring at the dancing flames. "There's nothing we can do for them anymore!" He grabs the destroyer by the shoulder, then by the hand. "We got to go! Now!"

* * *

**Oh yeah and if you wonder our main character, does have a name. For now I'll try to finish the next chapter now. Shouldn't take that long like this one.**


	3. Back to back

**I know I know. I took my time but this one is a long one. So I'll just shut it now and you have fun reading. Ok? Good!**

* * *

He doesn't feel the difference between sweat and water on his face anymore. Small, shiny pearls roll down. It's becoming harder to move with every explosion around him caused by the guns of the creatures chasing them. Waves jump up and down and the sound thunder echoes through the clear sky like a storm. The constant bombing on the sea seems to have made it angry.

They're on the middle of no where with nothing to hide behind, to get into cover. Nothing. No Isles, rocks and not even a single other ship on that large open ocean. It's just water everywhere. You can look everywhere, turning one or two times around and see nothing but water, and a bunch of weird creatures covered is armor and teeth coming to get you and pull you down into your wet grave.

Not long after he drags Kisaragi away from the fiery wreck of a boat a buzzing sound, similar to jets and a swarm angry bees, crawls up from behind. It was there all the time, in the background of the guns and demonic screams when they were attacked, but he hasn't noticed it at that time. But now - now it's getting louder and closer. This sound is fighting it's way further into the front not just until it reaches into his ears but until it's gnawing on his mind and this sound alone is enough to cause a painful feeling inside his chest that knows something bad is going to happen soon. Something really bad.

As he looks back the sky above their heads gets filled by a dark cloud. Many small points, so many that he doesn't care to count all of them, head their direction. At first they don't seem to do anything. They just fly past them and start cycling around for minutes like vultures but the more time runs past the more show up. Rapidly and completely overwhelmed by their numbers he keeps looking around and stays alert for the case they try to do something.

Eventually his eyes fall on one that gets lose from the swarm, followed by more. It dives, splitting the clouds behind and heads directly towards them clearly for an attack. There's no doubt. It comes closer. He notices that even this small thing is decorated with a big jaw but only the upper part is there. Instead of where the lower should be, is a grey tongue flapping freely in the wind.

And then, time starts to go by too fast. Shortly before both of them collide it pulls up again. And nothing happens - until he a small whistling appears and then something hits him with full strength. Wild flames completely cover his upper body as dark smoke slowly rise up. Sparks like small stars is the night jump around between the dark smoke. His vision is blocked and his lungs desperately cry for air. And it's now over yet.

He struggles a few steps back, arms waving around in front of his face to clear the smoke and it does. But as quickly as he gets to open his eyes again as fast the whistling starts again. This time louder - and from everywhere.

No time to think. He takes Kisaragi into cover, guarding her with his own body and closes his eyes so tightly that it just feels like they will burst out of his eye holes and plump into the water. Never to be seen again. He remains like that motionless with holding breath until the next round hit, what feels like a century.

Soon the time comes for the flames to light up again. And when that happens, when the shock and water splashes are reaching for the sky, he witnesses more whistle... and again, and again, and again, and... nothing.

For a moment he thinks that he's dead again. This quickly can it be. But slowly the burning pain on his back and the biting smell of smoke and burned skin returns but also something sweet is mixed in. It's Kisaragi's hair. But now why did these things stopped attacking? When he opens his eyes again and takes a look around he knows why.

A thick layer of white smoke lies on them like a cloud. Thick enough that he can see Kisaragi in front of him but not what's further than a few meters. Everything on her has caught dark areas from explosions and her hair almost look completely messed up but still is in shape somehow. Also the sky can't be seen from down here. Really everywhere you look looks the same. White and gray where the sun light has a hard time to get through.

Finally he has time to think and to take a deep breath. His head spins from all these impacts which has burned it's way through his clothing onto his skin but for some reasons his clothing survived. More or less. There are many holes burned into it and basically he can throw it directly away but for the most part it can still be worn. He might catch a cold though.

Now he finally get a break from all this. While catching his breath and sorting his thoughts he just throw himself onto his back into the salty water and finds the source of where this white smoke is coming from. It's streaming out from a weird matal thing that Kisaragi is wearing like a backpack. "Probably some weird gear." He thinks without questioning it. What he only needs to know is that this smoke is preventing them from getting killed right now on the spot. Whether that's a good thing is still unclear. There's no way out now.

Meanwhile from outside the creatures can be heard rallying around the fog. Their roaring pierce all the way through the layer of smoke into his ears while circling around the cloud like a hungry pack of wolves. No way to escape anymore. He's trapped with this girl inside the smoke.

He just lies there covering his face with his hands but can't get any rest. The earlier wounds have opened again, the salt burns on his back like fire and he can smell the biting smoke from his broken guns. Not like they were a great help in the first place. "Maybe it's better to sit." He convinces his numb body to move.

It's seems to be safe now. At least for a while. These things outside somehow don't dare to step inside. He watches at the dark soil growing out of Kisaragi's back and start to fade away into this white layer. It is actually very boring to look at but at the same time very interesting. Somehow hypnotic. And as he keeps watching a small whisper can be heard.

"What?" He asks immediately the only other person here.

It's Kisaragi who just managed to get herself together again. "Help is coming. But get ready! The enemy will enter the smoke screen very soon!" She replies simply having her eyes scanning around to make sure they're still safe and he does the same while getting back on his trembling feet.

"What makes you so sure about that?"

"I'll explain that later to you! But for now just belive me please."

"Heh, it's not like I have a choice, eh?" Both remain quiet for a while but nothing happens. The silence it creeping up his back because it is just too silent. At the moment there is only the sound of sea between heavy breathing. But neither from him or her. It comes from outside.

A familiar voice that has burned into it's way into his brain calls out from outside. "Oi, are you guys staying in there forever? That pretty pathetic, you know? You can take a room for the two of you after we're done here! So come out, now will you?! No? Alright. Then we're coming in side." The crazy one pauses for a second then she commands her units. "Pull them out of the smoke! Both at once or piece by piece! I don't care!"

Confident in the size of her fleet, that the battle won't last long, she crosses her arms and smiles while imagine what to do with her newly aquired toys. There she enjoys her anticipation and after some seconds something comes out again. But not what she likes to see.

It's shooting out of the white screen in a low angle and crashes into the water right next to her. One of her light cruisers. Brutally beaten up to the brink of death. Blood is running out between her armor and an arm is weirdly twisted but it still lives.

"Tch, if they don't want to come to me, I have to come to them." She barks. Her tail rises up and bites off the head of the struggling cruiser on the surface, ending it's life, before stepping into the smoke.

...

Meanwhile not far away on the same ocean a small fleet is just closing in very slowly. "Alright girls!" Their flagship calls out, pressing her glasses into the right position on her nose again. "We are nearing the abyssal fleet. Do not fire or draw any attention to yourself. You're going in, you're going out and no one knows you've been there."

The remaining three destroyers and the light cruiser remain silent while the flagship is talking.

"We are here just to gather some information about the fleet. That's it. Yahagi, you take command over the fleet. If something happens Tenryuu's fleet is nearby. Call her for some additional distraction and come back to me at once and we'll retreat together. They are prepared for a possible battle but try to avoid calling them. Except for Tenryuu they're not very experienced. Now go!"

Short and clear Yahagi calls back. "Understood!" And moves out with the destroyers following.

"Stay in touch with me." The flagship adds from behind. "And don't forget about our actual mission and also keep an eye out for Kisaragi. She hasn't returned to base yet." The cruiser doesn't answer. Instead she just gives back a a hand sign and keeps moving. "Oh and when I got in contact with Tenryuu it felt like someone was listening. So be careful out there." They're gone.

After some time has passed one destroyer starts to look around. Her eyes scan along the horizon but with absolutely nothing in sight. "Did you hear that?" She asks randomly into the crowd. "The sound of thunder... no, firing guns. "

The other two destroyers look at each other with big question marks on their faces until one of them answers back. "We haven't heard anything. You may just have heard my engine, Ayanami, or something similar."

"No no Kasumi, listen! There was it again."

The other of the two teases her from the side. "Ufufu can it be that the great Ayanami is nervous?" The cruiser remains silent.

"I'm sure of it. It sounded like a thunder strike far in the distance... We are heading right into something, I tell you." Even if the two of them seem to be quite unconvinced from what they hear they know exactly that that destroyer may have haven't imagined it. That for sure. After all Ayanami is one of the most experienced destroyer in their base at the time and her senses has been sharpened very well through countless battles to a level not many can reach. It goes so far that many other ships, not just destroyers, would rely on her senses more than on their own.

For some second no one speaks. An odd silence lays down over the ocean. Except for the engines roaring and the splashing and whirling water nothing else dares to make any noises. Not even Kasumi. She just catches herself holding the breath from trying to hear the thunder that was described but there is nothing.

Carefully she takes a deep breath. Inhale. One. Two. Three. Four. And exhale. But still nothing. That's when the silent cruiser joins. "I've heard it too." And again silence. But then a crashing thunder echoes through the horizon and there a cloud slowly growing up in the distance and a bunch of Abyssal lurking around it.

"That's the fleet i guess. Wow it's gigantic." Ayanami points out. "We should quickly report back to Kirishima and retreat. Yahagi?"

Some of Abyssal enter the smoke which is followed by more thunder and then silence before more enter. This is of course noticed by her through longer examine and her thoughts start to call. "It almost look like they hesitate before entering but that can't be. They're just mindless monsters, right? Or is there something they're scared of?"

While in her thoughts Yahagi quickly gets pulled out. "Isn't it weird?" She asks into the round. "This fleet really is gigantic... but also so light. Look there are just destroyers and some light cruisers and carriers somewhere hidden behind the smoke. No heavy cruisers and no battleships."

"What are you trying to say, Yahagi?"

"I'm saying that- nah naver mind. Let's head back. I don't like it near such a large fleet. Hm?" Her face remains the same as she scans over the enemy fleet once more. She also starts to speak to someone the others cannot hear. It doesn't took long for her to look back at the destroyer who asks her who that was?

"It was Tenryuu. I received a call from her." She answers simply. "Looks like we have to stay a while longer." A heavy sigh escapes her lips. "She told me about a panicked women reporting that her husband went missing on sea roughly an some hours ago. Cut contact. They must be somewhere around here."

"Fishermen? So far out here? That means... do you think they are inside this smoke screen?"

On this question the cruiser can only shrug her shoulders. "Probably. We need to find out more before we can do something."

In this moment a bright light catches their attention. Like a red star it shoots out of the smoke into the sky leaving a red line behind as it slows down again and falls. The light fades and the sounds of guns ring up from inside the screen follows again. In this moment the cruiser reaches for a call to their flagship that is waiting at where they split up.

"A flare?" Kasumi mumbles at first, not really able to sort her thoughts. "A flare, a flare... A flare! There is someone! Yahagi!?"

She is already a step ahead. "I'm on it." She sends out her call. When picked up no time for Tenryuu to say something is given. "There is someone getting attacked by the Abyssal. We engage!"

On the other side Tenryuu shows acceptance. "This is our duty. We swore to protect humanity at all cost. I'll call your flagship and we'll join the battle as soon as possible. Also I'll call for back up. Be careful."

"Attention everyone!" She holds up a hand. Her eyes burn with furry and passion to protect and her gun are ready to shred some Abyssals. "Stay together! After detection fire at will and we're going to tear our way through this fleet and enter the smoke screen! Everyone get ready!" She swing her hand forth like a strike and calls. "Let's go!"

At high speed all of them charge into the battle. The element of surprise is still at their side they haven't been spotted yet. One last look Ayanami throws at her mates knowing that all of them including herself may not return anymore. This is pretty much suicide what they're doing. She has made her peace with death long ago. Shipgirls can be rebuild again after all. But the worst pain still is to return home... but without your friends.

Closing in the first few Abyssal notice their presence and turn around. Their jaws slide open revealing guns hidden underneath pointing at the attacker. This is the sign to open fire. Guns on both side roar up. They start to exchange fire across the sea. One side though is far stronger fighting their way through a burning path.

More Abyssal catch their attention. And luckly when it starts to get really difficult to dodge all the attacks from all direction they enter the smoke.

From inside when the last enemy shells hit the water and Yahagi yells. "Alright we are inside! Is everyone fine?"

"I'm perfectly fine! No hits on my side!"" Ayanami calls back with Arashio following right after.

"My my, Kasumi. She's didn't make it through!" Her voice is unshaken by the action that has happened. It almost is creepy how calm she is despite her sister is still out there.

"Don't say we have to go back to pick her up." Ayanami was stomping her way out again when Arashio suddenly crosses her way with half of her body.

"My my, don't blame her. She wasn't ready for this." Her creepy smile remains with that monotone voice of hers. "You go with Yahagi and search for the source of the flare. I'll go pick her up and have some fun nearby ufufuf. And with that she leaves the other two back and steps out and right afterwards the shooting starts again.

The remaining two just look clueless at each other for a while before deciding to keep moving. A sound of clashing metal can be heard now. Like when two ships collide.

Soon Yahagi gets pulled back slightly by Ayanami. First her eyes look back at her how she is preparing for combat with her eyes focused forward. Then green, red and yellow lights appear in front of them followed by roarings. They're getting visitors. Without any words they know what to do.

As they open fire the lights fade away one after another but they don't fire back. Not until their silhouettes slowly appear in the fog but when that happenes it's already too late for them since most of them sank from the shelling earlier. They are in a big disadvantaged. Their glowing eyes can be spotted from further away and as long they live they keep glowing. Some even have a glowing aura around letting them shine like a bunch of crazy glowworms at night. But these ones are usually stronger than average.

After fighting off the last Abyssal they're met by one more light glowing in the smoke in the direction of where the sound of clashing metal comes. This one is difficult to aim at. It is moving rapidly around in a weird way and vanishes into nowhere for a few seconds or longer and as they approach it carefully with their guards up one more silhouette appears in front of them.

It seem to head towards the light too but very slowly so catching up is no problem at all. With every meter they come closer the darker the silhouette gets and the clearer it shape becomes and shortly before arriving the dark shadow turns out to have a human shape with red hair.

Still keeping an eye on it Ayanami doesn't call out to draw any more attention to them. They're practically safe inside the smoke though. Instead Yahagi calls out for her.

"Kisaragi?" She calls out and the silhouette stops and turns around. She is the source of the smoke. More is still coming out of her back but her body is slightly bent forwards and an arm is holding one the side of her stomach while the other is just hanging lose. Burnings and scratches run cross her gear and uniform and her hair is all wet from the salty water.

A small smile shines up on her face after she witnesses that her mates have actually come and shortly before they arrive her she breaks down onto her knees once more.

Ayanami arrives first and to comfort her while examine her wounds. Not that fatal. Just a few cuts and burnings. Her limps are just hanging down, motionlessly moving on the waves up and down while the salt is burning in the few wounds she has. Yahagi has arrived now just to she her friend at her limits.

Kisaragi broke down due to exhaustion. She has been fighting for her life for hours now without a break, confronting every enemy which dares to enter the smoke and between her heavy breathing she whispers faintly into Ayanami's ears. "I knew... you would come..." And a weak smile sneaks up on her face.

Ayanami just wraps the other destroyer's arm around her shoulder and stands up, whispering back. "You've done well surviving on your own out here. Now it's over let us handle this."

"It's not over!" Kisaragi tells her. She tries to stand again on her own but her own body weight pulls too strong on her weaken legs. "He's still..." Her rising voice cuts off and she starts coughing. "He's... still fighting!" She adds after getting her breath under control again.

"He? The Fishermen are here too? Yahagi, wh-"

"No!" She cuts in and now confusion comes up. But this is when they notice the metal sound from earlier in the fog followed by someone shouting full of rage. A manly and aggressive voice.

At first an unpleasant feeling creeps up inside the girls. They've heard male shouting before. When a soldier is desperately fighting for his life facing death shortly before he gets teared into little shred of blood and bones from an abyssal. All his anger and suffer are cried out and went into the last round of bullets as they bounce off the thick abyssal armor not leaving a single scratch. This is mostly what the girls have seen on land when a coast is getting attacked again. So when the shouting started the memories came back but are getting pushed aside as quickly again as they came. On the battlefield there is no space for such memories.

Then right after the noise dies down something right next to them hits the surface and the girls jump back. It's an enemy destroyer. They haven't seen from where it came from. It just felt from the skies or so they think but it's still twirling and twitching in pain. Acting fast Yahagi makes dispose of the creature quickly with her guns fired from close distance.

Armor shreds are flying around. One of them may has strive her cheek but leaves just a small scratch and nothing more. Right afterwards two fighting figures burst out of the smoke into their sights and a cold feeling runs down their neck when they recognise one of the figures as a light cruiser princess. On the other side however is something that's suppose to be impossible.

It's a guy covered in dark red and blue blood. And there they fight. Teeth against mace and fists against claws. The girls freeze at this sight of someone fighting a princess one on one head on. Both sides are hitting each other with enorm force that at each contact the sea begins to temple and splash.

"We have to do something!" Kisaragi yells after finding the strength again to do so.

"R-Right!" The cruiser calls back at starts aiming her guns but between this whirling and wrestling she can't get to shoot. "I-I can't get a free sight."

Ayanami can't really fight since she's holding Kisaragi who is out of question. Only she, the light cruiser, remains to be able to do something but her guns, that she has always relied on, prove to be of little use right now and charging a princess head on is suicide... or is suppose to be. But he's still fighting even in intense pain what she can see on his face.

Her head starts to spin around and her body flinch when she wants to take a step forward when her mind suddenly starts to talk to her. "What am I doing? What am I afraid of? When someone needs help I should immediately act! There is no place for hesitating!" And with one move she charges the princess, tackling her from the side. The princess is not very impressed by that though.

There was just a small push and now she stares at the weak cruiser at her side pretty pissed. This however leaves a gap in her guard and he gets a clean swing with his mace into her head. A clean smack, the body of hers tips over like a bag of rice and splashes onto the surface painting the water below in an even darker tone.

His gaze moves to the new girl sitting right next to him. He wipes out some blood of his face with the back of his hand but it just leaves even more there. "Who are you? Don't think I've seen you before." His voice is pretty dark for his age like he smokes a lot and his dull eyes look empty but there is probably more life in them then in her. His mace gets hanged back onto his belt.

Before she can answer the princess starts to move again, slowly rising onto all four whit blood keep dripping from her head. "Damn, you pitiful human pets! Wait- Wait until I get up... and we'll see!"

A hand brutally pulls her head up and the dark voice starts again. "You better should shut it... Nah, I'll better should bring you to it." His other hand moves to her throat still unknown of the dark shadow beneath the waves growing and before anything could have been done another pair of hands shoot out of the water, grab the defeated princess by the collar and pulls her underwater with such a force that it pulls him down too. But instead of getting underwater along with her his head smacks against the surface that is as hard as stone. "Arg! Bloody hell was that?!"

Seconds later the shadow returns a few meter further and something really really big emerges from the sea. It's a beautiful woman with similar pale skin to the cruiser princess, dark hair across her face and two horns. Also behind her is gigantic creature with big teeth, gun larger as his body and hands also as big. This woman is holding the cruiser princess with one arm on the leg letting her hanging upside-down.

The hanging one suddenly starts to cry out in fear. "B-B-B-Battleship princess! I was just-"

"Now look at you. Beaten and defeated." This woman voice calls out even more demonic with a horrifying touch of bloodlust. "And even your mask is shattered. Now I have to see the miserable face of yours."

"You're wrong I-I can still-" She doesn't get to end her sentence when she suddenly gets lifted even higher up and smashed down again, flat onto the surface. Blood flies out of her mouth at the impact and the sound of snapping bones echo out of her body. There she lies on her back weirdly gasping for air and coughing out more blood.

"This for lying to me and your punishment for disobeying my orders will come later but let me clean up that mess you left here first." And with a clean swing with both arms the smoke clears away in an instant revealing the fleet that is still alive outside. Even though many has been killed far more were waiting outside the smoke.

At the start of the battle the sun was standing high above the sky. Bright and mercilessly shining. Now it's nearing it's end at the horizon. Filling it completely in orange.

"This is not good. Not goo at all." He hears another girls whisper slightly further away from him as his beaten body stands up again. He hasn't seen this girl before either. She carries one arm of Kisaragi on her shoulder and a single gun is pointed towards ready to fire.

Soon his legs will fail to support him. At least they still keep standing for now. But for how long?

"Tch, fine. Just fine." When he's getting ready for the next battle that will most likely end up in his death someone else steps forward, blocking the way. Also a hand appears and pushes him few steps back. It's the black haired girl. With her eyes fixed on her opponent she speaks very quiet like her voice has gone missing. "Quickly! Get out of here! I'll delay then as good as I can."

Mixed feeling appear on her face. He sees that she's ready for a tough battle but also is scared to death. The thought of someone strange to him sacrificing her life for him is very unpleasant, so he throws a last glance back. "You heard her. Get out of here."

"Wait a second! I told you-"

"Shut up!" He cuts the black haired cruiser. "You can't order me around and I won't run this time! I wouldn't make it far anyways. So, let's get this over with!" She bites her lips. "If you don't agree with that you're free to run away."

But in an instant both of them charge the princess at the same time and in the back Ayanami make a run with Kisaragi on her shoulders. The only thing they can left for her friends are small pearls of tears that drop into the ocean.

Yahagi launches her first round of shells that doesn't really do much to the large arm of the monster behind the battleship princess that shields her and with a quick swipe with the back of the fist that big monster send Yahagi flying aside like she's nothing.

His turn goes almost the same. As the fist closes in with imense speed his legs finally give up and he is basically just falling onto the flying fist that is sliding on top the water. Like with a television his vision blacks out and is followed by a shock that makes him feel every bone inside his body breaking. His body flies high up into the air. This is where he opens his eyes again and is greeted by the dying sun. One last glimpse of this weird world. Only seconds go by where he watches the sun but it feels like he is floating for hours in the sky before the contact with the surface pulls him back into reality and his eyes fall onto the two running girls.

There he lies. Only able to watch these two getting chased by the monsters. There is finally nothing he can do anymore. It's quiet now. His vision is blurred. Only numb senses and heavy limps will follow him to the end. It feels just like when he woke up on this strange ocean with the only difference that he's growing tired and cold this time.

He's asking himself what happened to that girl that was slapped aside. His vision starts to spin only leaving him and his thoughts alone in his mind. "She's probably already dead and I will be too soon. It was just for a short time but somehow it felt good to move around and fight for my life. It felt like I haven't done that for too long. Nah, it doesn't matter anymore. At least there is nothing that binds me to this world." Right after he says these following lines to himself the image of Kisaragi flashes right before him. "Well, almost nothing. Please live on, you hear me?" And his mind enters eternal darkness again...

* * *

*knock knock*

"It's open."

"Commander. You've called me. Is there something wrong with my report?"

"Ah Kisaragi you're here. Erm... to be honest with you. I haven't read it yet. From all of you."

"Huh? So why did you call me here then?"

"I heard you guys have found something- nah, someone 'special'?"

"Yes. Well, he is a ship just like us but... well, he is an 'he'. Is it that you want to ask me?"

"Yes and no. Please take a seat first. This might take some time. Do you want some tea?"

"Yes please."

"..."

"Thank you."

"Where is he now?"

"... At the dock. He and Yahagi took a serious amount of damage. Akashi said it can take days for the both of them to wake up... and even longer to heal fully."

"Good to hear. Heh, a 'shipboy'. Can't belive we found one too."

"Too? There are more?"

"Well, there was one more after my knowledge. But we know almost nothing about him, not even his looking." *sigh* "He died long ago. That was before your time, Kisaragi."

"..."

"Anyway, when you gave me your report. My eyes fell on some thing very interesting. 124 sinkings through your hands in that one battle. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Would you mind explaining how you achieve such an incredible task? No one has done that by now I think."

"Of course. 124 sinkings through my hand. But only 19 were actually defeated by me."

"Huh? I'm afraid I don't understand."

"That is so..."

* * *

**Well, uh... yeah. What happened in that battle exacly after our dude has blacked out? Well let's hope you'll never find out. But you could. In the next chapter. Now with the next chapter his new life starts. Let's hope he'll be fine. But to be honest. We all hope that something happenes to him, no?**


	4. Met by moonlight

**So uh... this chapter marks the end of the start and from now on shit's getting science. Speaking of science: Keep in mind that of course certain aspects of physics are completely ingored, because I can, and also language is not a barrier in world where everyone speaks Japanese and everyone who does not speaks with Japanese accent. Also, I don't remember if I have told you guys, that when I mention a princess I don't mean that she is a sunken shipgirl but just some abyssal being a princess (but she could be. you'll never know until it's too late :D) and in addition I'd like to add more that actually do not exist because 'why not'. Well I think that's it. Enjoy.**

* * *

"It's too bright. I can't see a thing." His eyes are just barely opened. The whole world is just like a blinding white wall with nothing more than the pain the feels like two daggers were rammed into his eyes. It's like being traped inside a box with every wall being a headlight, including the ceiling and the floor. Everywhere is just the same painful light.

He blinks sometimes with his eyes, which feel dried out, trying to get at least a few glimpses of his surrounding. Just a little bit would help. It's exact the same feeling as waking up early in the morning when the first light hits the eye, either from the sun from between the curtains or the flashy bath light you turned on, that is surprisingly brighter than you remember. But this time it's much worse. While the feeling in the morning vanishes after a few minutes, this one just set your eyes and brain on fire.

Slowly he touches his way around. Adapting to the brightness can take a while, or more, so his hand shall see for him instead. He feels around. He's sitting in warm water that reaches up to his throat. Also he can feel there are walls around him which are as high as to his hips when he stands. Climbing out is no problem at all. Now that he slightly knows how his direct surrounding may look like. A pool or similar, tiles and water. Well more is not there.

He takes a listen around. Nothing. No! There is something... someone. A soft breathing a bit further away. He's not alone. Quietly he waits in the position he sits until he adapts to the light enough to climb out of the pool and move around without stepping into something unexpected.

Finally his eyes start to see some shadows and shape again. It looks like a bath or some kind. Small pools that are build into the floor most of them are empty though, towels right beside them and wet. Very wet. There are more pools build into the floor in two straight lines on both sides of the hall with a way in the middle... and in one of them sits someone else. He can't really recognise who that would be and he doesn't really care either but from what he can see and hear it looks like she's sleeping.

Quietly he makes his way out of the pool and grabs a towel at the same time and at the same time a clock suddenly stops ticking behind him. This ticking hasn't been noticed until it stops. No one pays attention to such a small sound but now without this ticking this hall is even more quiet then before.

Trying to avoid that his wet feet make these annoying splashing sounds he sneaks his way to the next door that is luckily not locked. The room he enters is dark. The only light comes from the hall from which he entered but it's better that way. This way he can see just fine.

There are enpty shelfs in this room in which one of them he spots a familiar metal object. "This can only be..." He takes a few steps closer and it is. It is his mace. Clean and shiny with out any traces of blood and almost in perfect condition despite the long battle he has been through. Also there is something else in the shelf together with the mace.

He pulls out something soft. Due to the fact that his mace was lying on it he assumes that this is for him to use. A new pair of clothing. A quick change later he just throws his wet, old clothing with holes that has been shot and burned into it into the shelf where the mace was along with the towel from the bath. "Alright. Freshly changed. Let's head outside.

One room further is the exit. Everything is dark and empty. No light burning, chairs properly positioned on tables and the furniture are a bit dusty. What ever this weird bath like building is it isn't in use very often. At least the last door isn't locked either and he steps outside.

It's already night time. This is the first time that his feet touch solid ground but still it feels like he's on the water. His brain is playing pranks on him. He was out there on the ocean for so long that his body starts to tilt to the sides to balance out the waves that do not exist on land. This feeling of the living ground makes him look like a drunken alcoholic.

With a steady position he starches his limps. For a few seconds he holds like this and he feels how the warm blood is running through. His back and neck cracks in that familiar gross sound and done. Well he's alive. That for sure.

After his arms get back into resting position he takes a careful look around. A weird place. It resembles a normal, small harbour with docks and stuff like that what a harbour should have but only one single ship is in sight and... there are girls further on the water. Not sure what they are doing but gun fire can be heard from this direction.

He takes a second look around. This clear night sky is just beautiful and the fresh air carries an aroma of salt, sand and... gun powder. "Looks like this is not just a normal harbour." He mumbles to himself speaking with his own mind.

Through the dead of the night suddenly a small flashy light lights up in the distance but disappears as fast as it came. Not quick enough though for our guy to catch. He tells himself that there is nothing for him to do so why not take a closer look at that light. Maybe it can give him some answers to his many questions... somehow or something funny happens. That's fine with him too. Better than to sit around and wait for the answers to come on their own.

This little walk is very pleasant. Walking near the sea at moonshine is very calming and beside the girls, very far on the water, no one else is around. This place is almost like a ghost town. Well no one else is around until he reaches the source of the flash. There is a girl. She's standing close to the water capturing the night sky with her camera while facing the ocean.

That girl has light, purple or pink hair bound into a short ponytail. She also wears a white sailor uniform but unlike the ones he has seen yet, which make him think of how many variant of sailor uniforms one could ever design before he runs out of ideas. Well they all look kind of similar but somehow different too. He can't really tell the differences between all of them since he hasn't waste a single thought about this stuff until now.

The girl starts to speak in a very bored manner without facing him when he arrived behind her. "This is boring, is it."

"It's all the same. I don't know why people would think about this as something special. I mean... it's just every day that same. The same place, the same color, hell, even the same time ever again. I'm sick of it."

"Um... excuse me? You're sick of what?"

"Eh... what do you think I mean?! I mean the night sk- huh?" Now she turns around in surprise while scanning him from up to head to toe.

"Eh... I'm sorry if you expected someone else. Uh... I'll better take my lea-"

Her eyes suddenly light up and so does her voice too. Like a child she she jumps up and approaches him in a very uncomfortable way in which he could only replay with backing up a few steps. That behaviour suits her in a slightly creepy way. "Wait wait wait. You're this guy Kisaragi picked up. Yes, yes?"

"Uh... guess so." He slowly gets the feeling that he better should've stayed in the pool.

"Yes, yes I remember. I saw you when I sneaked into the unused repair docks earlier."

"Repair docks?"

"Yeah, I was curious why it was suddenly in use so I sneaked in there and I took these cute pictures of you and Yahagi."

"You what?!"

"Oh maybe you can tell me what happened to you guys. The commander refused to give me the report of that day so maybe you can tell me, right? This will be a good addition to my blog."

"Uh... may I see those pictures? I mean the ones you took of me."

"Eh... I'm not sure. Usually I don't show people my pictures except for the ones I think are perfect."

"Come on. Don't you think I deserve at least see the pictures you took of me? At least one."

"... Fine. But just one." With a few button smashes she holds up the cam with a picture of him sleeping in the pool. And this pool is suppose to be a repair dock?

"And you just took it earlier?"

"Yeah, actually I just finished and left the docks and some minutes later you stood behind me."

"Say, is the camera waterproofed?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

And with no answer given he slaps the camera in a single swift movement out of her hand right at the sea. "Whoops. Oh no. My hand slipped (not)."

"Wha! THE CAM!" She shouts while jumping. This girl sure has a great reaction and flys afterwards catching the cam midair. Just sadly she also is some kind of idiot because and moment she reaches out and grabs it both, hard and the cam, are about one meter in the air right above the sea and soon after gravity does it's thing and then water does that other thing and that girl splashes head on into the salty ocean.

After a while she came back on land. Wet from head to toe and so is the cam too. She stares at it for a few times longer before sobbing and repeatedly pounding onto his chest. "You idiot!" She throws at him. "Now it's all gone!"

"Yeah yeah I'm sorry (not). I'll pay you back someday (eventually)."

But that girls keeps crying out. "It's not about the cam, moron, but the pictures in it. They were priceless." He lets her pounding on his chest a while longer in hope that she calms down soon. It doesn't hurt at all. The only thing he feels is how his fresh shirt becomes wet by the fists.

After some minutes of her keeping pounding without a sign of stopping he takes this matter into his own hands by putting his hand onto her head pushing her carefully back letting her fist swinging at empty air. She keeps struggling and he's not even sure if she has noticed it since her eyes are closed in her bright red face.

"Say..." He starts to make her stop thinking about this matter. "...is there a place where you can get food at this time." Well not the best topic but that's the only thing ha can think of right now. "Since at sea I haven't eaten a thing and I don't know how much time has passed since I passed out."

Finally she stops and stares at him. Her head still red like a tomato but the color should vanish soon after some time. Silently she wipes some tears out of her face, nods, turns and head a way without saying a word still carrying the remains of what used to be a once functioning cam. Well she looks somehow depressed now dragging her feets over the concrete surface.

He watches as she makes her way away from the sea but stops after a while again to turn around. With a voice as depressed as she looks like she mumbles at him from the distance. "Are you coming or not?"

Soon both arrive at a hut near a beach and his eyes are met with a familiar sight but somehow different. A beach so flawless. This place looks just like one of these desktop wallpapers with places no mortel is ever able to find on earth. The sand shines to bright in the moonlight and is completely free from trash while the water sparkles purely in the dark. And the best. A sweet aroma of delicious food fills the air. If he's ever going to die his final whish would be to die here.

He and the girl enter the hut... and it smells even better in here. With slightly orange light and wooden furniture this place feels warm and from somewhere where probably the kitchen should be at the other end of the room a motherly voice calls out. "I'm coming. Just a second." And then a person with long brown hair and a big red tie on her head steps into the room. "Oh my, a visitor from outside the base? I haven't been told anything. Anyway, please take a seat everywhere you'd like. I will receive your orders immediately."

She quickly grabs a node pad and a pen while the both of them take the seats at the first table near the entrance. This idiot sits directly on the other side of the table and puts her chin on the table in defeat while letting out a heavy sigh.

Of course the kind lady notices the state she's in and asks. "On my Aoba. What happened to you? You look completely beaten and you're wet from head to toe."

"I don't want to talk about it." She groans back. Only her eyes are fixed on him, stabbing daggers into his body and soul.

This is when he steps in. "Just an accident. Nothing to be worried about."

"Is that so? Well, may I take your orders then?"

Aoba groans once more earning a small gaze from the kind lady. "Just give me ice cream in the largest bowl you can find."

She quickly writes it down and her gaze moves to him next. "Uh... well, anything is fine. I feel like I haven't eaten for days."

Out of the sudden another voice sounds up from behind. "Well that's because you haven't." He quickly turns around to find out who has just approached him from behind. And when he does so his eyes meet the girl from the bath who was sleeping in another pool, freshly dressed in her uniform with still wet hair. "Somehow I have predicted that I would find you here and it looks like you already made a new friend." She chuckles and then looks up. "Mamiya, I take the same what he ordered." And with that the other girl sit down right next to them and Mamiya makes her way into the kitchen.

"And I thought you died back there." He just says like dying is the most natural thing. "That friendly slap in the face sent you flying meters into the air. Well I don't remember much what happened afterwards."

"Me neither." Says the girl. "But I heard from Kisaragi what has happened after the both of us were taken out."

Aoba's head is still on the table. Her eyes just move from one person to the other as they speak.

"Did we won?" Well this question is pretty much unnecessary but for his surprise that girl just shrugs. "Huh? Now I don't understand. I can bet that this weird black lady who was pretty overpowered and her pets were everywhere."

The girls takes a few deep breaths and begins to tell him in a very serious tone. "To keep it short. The rest of our fleet and an expedition fleet nearby showed up just in time to rescue us. And so they did. But..." He can clearly see that something about this story is bothering her in her mind. She bites her lips and rubs the tips of her hair between her fingers while facing down onto the wooden surface of the empty table.

"But?"

"But why did the princess retreat after the fleet has showed up? I mean with such a strength, you've felt it for your own, and with such a large fleet they could easily win another battle. Most of the abyssal in this fleet probably haven't even seen a single battle that day."

"Maybe they did it out of kindness." He jokingly points out from the side and that just earned a weird look from her.

"Maybe they pissed themselves and ran home." Aoba adds from the side just half as depressed as she used to be a few minutes ago. He points with his empty hand at her while nodding to agree to that statement of hers.

That girls rubs her hair with both hands now. Small pearls of water fall from her still wet hair onto the table, forming small spheres on it. "Naaarrrg." She groans out. "Thinking back at this failure of a battle is so infuriating!" And her head goes down onto the table like Aoba's.

Silence lies down upon the three of them. Well, there may be more to talk about like what this whole repair and docks-thing means what everyone is talking about. But to be honest, after what happened he isn't really in the mood for explanations. He's too lazy to think about such stuff right now. So he really just wants to relax and lets his mind empty like how it is most of the time.

This is his way of living. He doesn't really think about stuff nor plans something beforehand. Most of the time, if he can, he would jist avoid tasks that strains him in every form but if there's no way around he gets things done head on rather than thinking how he could solve it without force. "If it comes, it comes. If not, then not." That is what he ones said to himself. Also he not a guy who likes to asks question. Mostly because informations which are very important to know are mostly self-explanatory or he learn about them just by keeping an eyes on his environment. So to put it simply, he is pretty lazy. But do not confound laziness with stupidity.

Not long after the silence the food finally arrived. Maniya is carrying two large plates and an even larger metal bowl, probably ice cream for Aoba. The room fills even more with the scent of delicious food as she puts down the still steaming plate onto the table. With a warm smile she happily announces. "Two times my special curry for the two of you and ice cream in the largest bowl I could find for Aoba. Just call me if you need anything." With that she leaves back into the kitchen. The bowl stands in front of Aoba. This thing is huge, like one or two watermelons would fit in and it takes half of the table, but when Aoba looks inside the bowl there is only a single scoop of ice cream with a cherry on top.

Our guy here can feel how is mouth slowly runs full with water the longer he stares at the curry. The plate is really large. Probably twice the size of a normal one but he doesn't mind at all. The more, the better. He wants to eat this so badly but somehow he feels bad of doing so because this plate is so much of an artwork that he doesn't want to destroy it. In the end though his hunger won and he digs in like crazy and about ten minutes later he finishes first even before Aoba who is just scratching at the surface of the ice cream still half depressed.

"Woah. It feels like I just ate a piece of heaven itself." He calls out and looks over to the girl next to him. "And you get to eat that everyday?"

That girl takes a bite but her expression is the same as if this food in nothing special. "Often. Not every day." She says simply and takes another bite. "Mostly, we eat in the cafeteria. The food is not the best but it's good enough... and it's fast." Another bite. "When we've finished our tasks though. Many eat here instead."

He leans back into his chair and watches her slowly eating bit by bit, carefully taking one bite after another. He lets out a sigh. "That's nice. I could get used to it."

It takes more time for the both of them to finish. The girl beside him is still eating her curry and Aoba is just scratching on her ice cream little by little. The most of it should already have melted away. Eventually they finished their meal and after some time, and after more time of staring at each for no reason in silence, they decided to head back to the unused docks... or the baths how he still sees it while Aoba heads back to her room.

While walking together back the way they came from that girl asks him from the side. "By the way. We still haven't introduced ourselves, have we?"

He shrugs his shoulders and replies. "Don't think so."

She chuckles. "That's probably why you never called me by name. My name is Yahagi." She stretches out her hands to shake his. Somehow all the names he heard until now after he woke up are all Japanese. Either it can be just some weird coincidence or somehow he has landed in Japan for reasons he still doesn't know, what sure should be very unlikely.

He reaches out his. For a moment he isn't really sure what to say. Somehow he gets that feeling that he won't need his real name anymore. No one... or almost no has ever called him by his real name anyways. For the people around him he always had a nickname that they would use and somehow he got used to it so much that he used it as his actual name instead. "My friends used to call me Kai and you may too."

She looks at him weirdly at first. Probably not a common name around here but her face changes back to normal again immediately. "Mm, nice to meet you. That's quite an unfitting name, don't you think?" She chuckles softly which is pretty cute.

"Heh, it is." He scratches his chin and looks out to the sea and back. "Just because of some stupid coincidence I earned that nickname from my friends."

Both of them walk near the sea. This night is silent and the girls he saw when leaving the bath are gone with no traces left. Only these two are around.

Kai just have slept for days but suddenly he lets out a long yawn. His eyes are dull all the time. Yahagi isn't quite sure from where this yawn came from but she carefully takes a look around and spots someone in the dark standing near the bathhouse. No facial features are to be seen. This figure is just standing around as if it's waiting for something but just by looking at the shape Yahagi immediately recognise who that person is.

Of course this figure has noticed them too and is moving towards them and shortly before meeting this figure steps into the light of one of the few lamps out here. A young man dressed in a white uniform with a cap like hat. He's standing tall with a kind smile on his face.

Yahagi was about to move her hand up but the man stops her in her tracks holding up his hand while sayng. "No need to salut." This man is very young. Too young to be a high ranking officer or so but he wears a well decorated uniform and a fitting cap. He looks very kind. At least this smile he wears fits perfectly. Only his eyes stare through a small gaps in his face that makes it difficult to see them properly. "Oh, am I disrupting your date?" He jokingly asks.

Yahagi waves her arms around and seems flustered by this question. Her voice really starts to rise and stutter and something red appeared on her face but she looks away too quickly before someone can take a closer look at her. "N-N-No! N-not at all. I-I-I mean that wasn't a date in the first place... A-And I don't think I'm ready for... something like that." In the last sentence her voice became lower and lower until only small shreds of what she said could be understood. Kai doesn't know why but it's quite amusing to see her like this.

"Oh? Is that so? Well, then I think it won't be a problem when I take him from you."

"No of course not, Commander." She replies formally and leaves the two guys quickly. They keep looking at her back until she vanishes in the bathhouse. She seems quite weird. Her steps were faster too.

"Well, shall we walk a bit?" That man asks Kai very politely and offers this suggestion with with a quick hand move to the side.

"If you want." They slowly walk a different way, away from the sea again, and this time his way leads him further inside this place. Buildings which he hasn't payed any attention to start to grow in his vision. Some look like normal houses but some look like buildings you can only see like on a factory ground, something that isn't just standing around in the city, such as storages or some kind. Pretty much ugly builds but who cares? Kai at least not.

"Heh, you may think that she's weird, no? I mean that girl. Yahagi." The man turns his attention back at Kai. "You see this reaction pretty often when you work here for quite a time and being the only male around. They don't speak to people from outside the base very often so they lack of a lot of experience with the outside world and life itself. I'm trying to do my best to give them normal lives as girls as good as I can but that proofed very difficult. Well, as normal as it is able to be."

"Is that so..." Kai says with his dark, monote voice. "...what's with these girls in the first place? I mean sending them out on sea to fight doesn't seems right to me." This voice lacks of emotions and sound more like a depressed guy even when telling jokes or when he's mad at someone. His words of choosing aren't the best as well. Many may see that as pretty rude but even in combination with his dull eyes he still smiles pretty often like when he enjoys something. He just feels tired most of the time which leads to his lazy behaviour that also manifests in his voice very clearly. The reason for this is still unknown for him and will probably never solved. But that's fine with him.

"Ah yeah." The man grins up into the sky. "This must be how the people react when the first of these girls were ised. I don't know that feeling it seems pretty normal to me because I've been born into a time where sending out these girls is pretty normal. Well, you must know that these girls aren't human... or not entirely. If fact they are a soul of old warships inside a human shell, basically a living weapon. They bleed, they breath and they feel. But also they need fuel and steel."

Kai scratches his the back of his head. "This sounds stupid. Why should boats even have a soul?"

The man stops and turns towards him. Kai is almost half a head taller than the man but he's older. From where Kai looks down on him his cap covers his eyes completely only the smile that seems never to vanish remains in sight. "That's very interesting, no? Would you like to find out how?"

"I mean we may even find out how you became a ship. I think that's something you'd like to know too, am I right?"

By hearing that Kai remembers when he was at sea with these girls. He hasn't thought much about his situation but he has noticed that his body grew a lot stronger and much more durable than he can remember he was, and the fact that he was standing on water completely aside.

"What do you say? Would you help me in my search for answers?"

"Does that involve killing?

"That depends completely on you."

Actually there is not really much to think about but Kai still likes to take sometime just to make it seem he's thinking. "Could be fun. I mean there's no place for me to go and there is no place I have to be, so why not?"

The man's expression seems to shine up as he reaches out one hand. "I'm glad I have you on board. I sadly can't tell you my name because I'm not allowed to give my name to anyone inside the base but you can call me, Commander... or Admiral if you prefer that."

"Kai." He takes the hand for a shake. "That's how my friends used to call me."

The Commander nods. "Mm, nice to meet you. Now let's continue our conversation tomorrow when your repairs are finished. Just meet me in my office. In the big building behind us." He points out to a large building somewhere nearby. "You can't miss it. Just ask Yahagi for help if need to. If you've rested well I would like to explain to you everything you should know about shipgirls and the situation you're in. Also maybe we could test out your capabilities. Kisaragi told me you're very strong. I'd like to see that for my own."

Kai just turns away and walks back the way they came from while waving back. "I have no idea what you mean by repairs but I'm going to take a nap in the bath. See you tomorrow."

The man stares at his back for quite a time before turning around and walk the opposite way without a word.

* * *

**So now that we got the boring stuff done let's start to make things getting science and we'll start the problems for our little guy with a girl who is not quite normal. Well not as normal as a shipgirl is able to be. But who do I mean? Of course it's-**


End file.
